The rent you pay goes directly back into repairing and maintaining homes to ensure they are safe and of good quality, funding vital services and support for tenants, and improving the energy efficiency of homes to reduce fuel bills and work towards zero-carbon targets.

The 2023/24 rent increase has been calculated in line with government policy, following an inflation linked Government formula that makes sure rent levels are capped and remain at an affordable level. We always try to keep rents as affordable as possible, but we need to balance this with the rising costs of repairing and maintaining homes and other essential goods and services.

Like all social housing providers, we follow the Government’s guidelines on rent setting. We work it out by taking the previous September’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate, which was 10.1% this year and add 1% to it. Because the CPI was very high last September, the Government agreed to protect Social Housing tenants and cap Social Housing rent increases at 7% instead. This means we’ll be increasing your rent by 7% from April 2023.

Stockport Council rents remain one of the lowest in Greater Manchester (GM).  Out of a sample of 109 housing providers across different GM Boroughs, Stockport Council had the 8th lowest rents.

Customers living in properties with a heating service charge have so far been protected from energy price rises related to heating costs. However, because of extreme and unprecedented increases to energy costs nationally, the cost of energy has increased significantly since your charge was last set. Your charge for 2023/24 has been increased to reflect the increased costs for heating your property. We procure our energy supplier through a broker to ensure we always get the best deal possible for our tenants and keep any increase as low as possible.

We won’t be able to change what you need to pay for your rent and service charges. However, we understand times are tough and we’re doing everything we can to support our customers during this period:

To support households with continuing high energy and living costs, the Government confirmed that further Cost of Living payments of £900 will be paid to households receiving means tested benefits during 2023/24, with additional payments of £300 for pensioners and an additional £150 to claimants receiving disability benefits.

In addition to this we have put in place a range of additional support measures, such as hardship funds, alongside our well-established money advice services.

Our dedicated, expert Money Advice team can support you if you’re having difficulties. They will complete a full financial assessment and provide advice and support for income maximisation, reducing outgoings where possible and can support with a hardship fund payment where appropriate. You can contact them Monday to Friday between 8.30am and 5pm on 0161 217 6016, option 3, or email them at moneyadvice@stockporthomes.org.

If you pay by Direct Debit in most cases the payments will have been calculated so that when your last payment is made in March 2023 you will not have any rent arrears. It’s possible that your account may go into arrears during the year dependent on when your payments are due.

Any letters received show the balance on your account at the date of printing, so if you have made any payments since this date these will not be reflective. Depending on how you pay will also affect when the payment is showing on your account.  Payments made at a Post Office or Pay Point outlet take 3 working days to reach your account, and all other methods should be showing the next working day.

It depends…..If you pay by Direct Debit the account is unlikely to actually be in credit. Your payments will have been calculated so that when your last payment is made in March 2023 you will have a zero balance. It’s possible that your account may look as though it is in credit during the year dependent on when your payments are due.

If you do not pay by Direct Debit you are required to have credit on your account to ensure you are paying in advance in line with your tenancy agreement and the amount will depend on the frequency of your payments for example weekly payers a week in advance, monthly a month etc.

If the credit is the result of a payment from Universal Credit or Housing Benefit in most cases we will not be able to issue a refund to you.

You will receive a Notification of Rent and Other Charges letter on or before 6^th March 2023 and this will give you a full breakdown of your rent and service charges for the next year.

You don’t need to do anything! You will receive another letter in the next couple of weeks which tells you what your housing benefit entitlement will be from April 2023.

No, you don’t need to do anything if you pay by Direct Debit. Your new payments from April will be calculated automatically and you will receive a further letter before the end of March telling you what your payments will be.

Yes, you will need to update Universal Credit with your new Housing Costs information. You will need to keep checking your online claim on or after 3^rd April 2023 as you will be set a ‘to-do’ by the DWP to update the ‘Where you Live and What it Costs’ section of your claim. Don’t worry we will send you a letter just before which will give you instructions on how to update your Housing Costs or you can contact us Monday to Friday 8.30am until 5.00pm on 0161 217 6016 option 3 if you need some assistance.

There are 4 rent free weeks in 2023/2024 and they are:

• Week 1 – Week commencing 03/04/2023
• Week 14 – Week commencing 03/07/2023
• Week 39 – Week commencing 25/12/2023
• Week 52 – Week commencing 25/03/2024

You will only benefit from the rent free weeks if you have a clear rent account.

If you pay for your rent monthly the calculation will have already taken account of the free weeks (48 charges divided by 12) so you will pay the same amount every month and don’t then pay less on the months when the free weeks occur.